liuzhou

I have posted this before, but not in a dedicated tea topic. 虫宝茶 (chóng bǎo chá) literally means 'insect treasure tea'. The caterpillars of a certain type of moth feed on the baby tea leaves in the plantations. Their droppings are then collected by the farmers and dried. They are then used to make a refreshing cup of tea! They are mixed with regular undigested tea. It is considered medicinal and effective against stomach complaints. I tried a cup before buying this jar. It tasted like tea but with a sort of fungal taste in the background. Not bad.

红枣 (hóng zǎo) - jujubes, Chinese dates.

I think it's worth remembering the vast majority of humanity still doesn't have refrigeration and other "modern" preservation aids. That said, preserving foods has gone on since pre-history. Salting, fermenting, drying, smoking, curing, canning, pickling and more were all used as a means of preservation centuries ago. Many food preservation techniques still used today in the developed world were invented or accidentally discovered, then used to preserve food, but we still eat them today - because we like them. Not because we need still to preserve them. Bacon, smoked salmon, kippers, cheese, yoghurt, pickles. All around the world, people are preserving food just as they have for millenia.

三鲜饺子 （sān xiān jiǎo zi） - Three delicacy jiaozi dumplings with Srirachan Sriracha. Home made then frozen.

The writing below the picture implies it is one of her ancestors, whose "secret recipes" she uses. Could be Muslim, yes. There has been a small Muslim community here for centuries.

I don't do this often, but today I baked a potato for lunch. With Harbin Red sausage and golden garlic. Butter of course. Sea salt. And black pepper. The correct amount of pepper to put on your baked potato is "too much". Harbin red sausage was introduced to Harbin in north China by the Russians during WWII. Nothing like Chinese sausages. More like Polish.

Tupperware is seen as an almost luxury product here in China, but is sold in tupperware shops, not parties. There's only one Party here, folks and don't you forget it! I passed two such outlets today. Of course, the same stuff is available everywhere else for half the price, but the less humble have to be seen in the right places.

Your dad's poultry allergy stops you eating Yorkshire puddings and mashed potato? Sorry, you've lost me there! The post I was responding to references neither poultry or lobsters.

The Instant Pot Understands The History Of Women's Labor In The Kitchen by the ever-interesting Bee Wilson. Worth a read.

No. The Yiddish has no 't' either. The OED lists three alternative spellings for English - schmaltz, shmaltz and schmalz.

You need an excuse?

Another place to get both real teas and flower or other teas, which I prefer to call tisanes, are these outlets. This one is very near my home, but I've never bought anything, despite its obvious popularity. It is called 瑶山凉茶 (yáo shān liáng chá) which literally means 'Jade Mountain Cold Tea'. This does not mean it is iced teas; just room temperature. Her selection includes some real tea, but most are tisanes. Her shop is at the entrance to the local market, a busy place, so she does just fine, I guess. She stays open from early morning, well into the evening.

That selection of drink flasks is one of the smaller ones I've seen! The flowers are mainly appreciated for their supposed medical benefits. Most have little detectable flavour. I bought that lot just to photograph them, then gave them to my dear friend, J. She was delighted!

I spent a sizeable part of the morning making a batch of Quail Scotch Eggs. Had two for lunch. More in the freezer for later.

Drink flasks in my local supermarket. a) Non-vacuum b) Vacuum

Talking about flower teas, here are a few of the dried flowers and other plant bits used to flavour teas, as stocked by my local supermarket. It isn't only Jasmine and Chrysanthemum!

This interesting NPR article "From Lawn Mowers To Rock Concerts, Our 'Deafening World Is Hurting Our Ears" is about noise in general, but does include a section on restaurants. Also available as a more detailed podcast from the same link.

I will, but have to find out first. As I said, I'm not much of a tea drinker. Will get back to you! From what an old man can gather about millennials, few are in the least interested in the traditional anything. Anywhere. Not only China. They are interested in the bubble tea and sweet vaguely tea-based soft drinks. I've only ever come across it in the context I gave. Recent, yes.

Oh yes. It's safe. I don't know why I haven't used it recently. I'm almost as fond of it as you are!

You are welcome! I've rarely been offered tea in anyone's home. In fact, I am not sure I have ever been. Most times, at homes, I'd be offered water (either hot or cold), if anything. At meals, nothing other than maybe beer or rice wine (which isn't wine in any sense, but hard liquor). At restaurant meals or festive home meals, I see most people drink the same, although the non-drinkers may opt for Lilt or a local equivalent. Some sort of poisonous c*rn-based compound is often consumed by the ladies! After writing what I posted, I was talking with a Chinese friend and mentioned all of this. She concurred entirely. "No, we don't drink with dinner." She also said she very seldom drinks tea, and when she does it isn't at home.

What supermarkets and corner shops tend to sell more of is these tea based soft drinks, usually flavoured with fruit or flowers. And horribly sweet. Again, I only normally see young people drink them! Left is rose and lychee flavoured black tea (red tea in Chinese) and right is pomelo flavoured green tea. Blueberry Green Tea Chrysanthemum Tea It seems when true tea lovers want tea, they go to tea houses or markets to buy the necessary. Tea on sale in the market.

I forgot to mention that the "tea" served in cheaper restaurants often can be hawthorn "tea" rather than real tea. Hawthorn Tea Leaves ( 山楂茶叶 shān zhā chá yè)

Scrambled sea duck egg with "Italian" sausages and Chinese flatbread. Served on teardrop plate. It hasn't made an appearance in a while!

I've answered your questions (I hope) on a new topic here. It seemed more appropriate.

This arose from this topic, where initially @Anna N asked about tea not being served at the celebratory meal I attended. I answered that it is uncommon for tea to be served with meals (with one major exception). I was then asked for further elucidation by @Smithy. I did start replying on the topic but the answer got longer than I anticipated and was getting away from the originally intended topic about one specific meal. So here were are.. I'd say there are four components to tea drinking in China. a) When you arrive at a restaurant, you are often given a pot of tea which people will sip while contemplating the menu and waiting for other guests to arrive. Dining out is very much a group activity, in the main. When everyone is there and the food dishes start to arrive the tea is nearly always forgotten about. The tea served like this will often be a fairly cheap, common brand - usually green. You also may be given a cup of tea in a shop if your purchase is a complicated one. I recently bought a new lap top and the shop assistant handed me tea to sip as she took down the details of my requirements. Also, I recently had my eyes re-tested in order to get new spectacles. Again, a cup of tea was provided. Visit someone in an office or have a formal meeting and tea or water will be provided. b) You see people walking about with large flasks (not necessarily vacuum flasks) of tea which they sip during the day to rehydrate themselves. Taxi drivers, bus drivers, shop keepers etc all have their tea flask. Of course, the tea goes cold. I have a vacuum flask, but seldom use it - not a big tea fan. There are shops just dedicated to selling the drinks flasks. c) There has been a recent fashion for milk tea and bubble tea here, two trends imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively. It is sold from kiosks and mainly attracts younger customers. McDonald's and KFC both do milk and bubble teas. Bubble and Milk Tea Stall And Another And another - there are hundreds of them around! McDonald's Ice Cream and Drinks Kiosk. McDonald's Milk Tea Ad d) There are very formal tea tastings and tea ceremonies, similar in many ways to western wine tastings. These usually take place in tea houses where you can sample teas and purchase the tea for home use. These places can be expensive and some rare teas attract staggering prices. The places doing this pride themselves on preparing the tea perfectly and have their special rituals. I've been a few times, usually with friends, but it's not really my thing. Below is one of the oldest serious tea houses in the city. As you can see, they don't go out of their way to attract custom. Their name implies they are an educational service as much as anything else. Very expensive! Tea House Supermarkets and corner shops carry very little tea. This is the entire tea shelving in my local supermarket. Mostly locally grown green tea. Local Guangxi Tea The most expensive in the supermarket was this Pu-er Tea (普洱茶 pǔ ěr chá) from Yunnan province. It works out at ¥0.32per gram as opposed to ¥0.08 for the local stuff. However, in the tea houses, prices can go much, much higher!